Disc brake-equipped bikes enter professional peloton

Team Roompot is using disc brake-equipped road bikes in the Eneco Tour that’s currently taking place in the Netherlands and Belgium. This is the first time that disc brakes have been used by professional road racers.

The Dutch Pro Continental team Tweeted this photo (above) earlier today. It’s not the best picture but they’re SRAM’s hydraulic disc brakes fitted to Roompot’s Isaac bikes.

World cycle sport’s governing body the UCI confirmed back in April that hydraulic disc brakes would make their first appearance in the professional peloton this year under an experimental programme ahead of an anticipated full roll-out in 2017.

"The aim is to eventually introduce disc brakes to all levels of road cycling," said the UCI and the World Federation of Sporting Goods Industries (WFSGI).

They announced that the process would start during August and September when all teams would be able to use bikes with disc brakes during two events.

That time has now arrived and it’ll be interesting to see how things develop from here. Although Team Roompot and Isaac appear to have jumped at the opportunity to use disc brakes in pro road racing, Trek didn’t seem particularly eager to provide their Trek Factory Racing riders with this technology when we visited them back in June. In fact, they seemed to be decidedly lukewarm on the subject.

Time will tell. We’ll keep our eyes open for more developments.

What do you reckon? Are disc brakes a welcome addition to road racing? Let us know what you think.